False starts are usually forgotten in the early phases of an athlete's development. Young boys and girls may try their hand at several different sports and then gravitate toward the best opportunities for "showcasing their talents." Writers presumably conduct their own trials and errors, too, with the misbegotten products left buried in desk drawers, if not destroyed. Anthony Trollope's false start, _La Vendée_, a historical romance, was published, but it's fair to say that it has not been remembered. It was his third novel, following two Irish novels, _The Macdermots of Ballycloran_ and _The Kellys and the O'Kellys_, and it was followed four years later by the first of his Barsetshire novels, _The Warden_, which was a great success. By then Trollope knew where his strength lay; he followed with _Barchester Towers_ and thereafter he stuck to the world (mostly England) of his own day. He did not attempt any more historical novels. The worst thing about _La Vendée_ is the dialogue. Here's a conversation between husband and wife as he prepares to leave for war: "I know, Victorine," said he, when they were alone together in the evening, when not even his own dear sister Marie was there to mar the sacred sweetness of their conference, "I know that I am doing right, and that gives me strength to leave you, and our darling child." He goes on for another paragraph or two. Except for the stilted, wordy dialogue, the story is not so bad. It follows a lost cause, that of the citizens of La Vendée, an agricultural region in the west of France that my wife and I drove through on our way from Normandy to Bordeaux several years ago. These faithful servants of the king opposed the republican forces of the French Revolution, and they were annihilated. We follow the men and women of the doomed faction: Jacques Cathelineau, the humble postilion who is elected first military leader of the royalists, and who is loved by the noble and lovely Agatha Larochejaquelin; Agatha's brother Henri, who succeeds Cathelineau as general of the royalist forces, and who loves Marie de Lescure; and Marie's brother Charles and his wife Victorine. That makes three couples. There is also a little comic relief of sorts with Jacques Chapeau, Henri Larochejacquelin's servant, who woos Annot Stein, daughter of the blacksmith Michael Stein. A saucy wench, Annot teases Jacques by praising Cathelineau the general.